Ever feel like something's missing?

Caleb lost his first tooth tonight, and in case you didn't notice, he is absolutely thrilled. The poor kid didn't get his first tooth until he was at least 14 months old, so he's waited a long time for this. Brayden lost his first tooth in preschool.

He'll be starting second grade in a few weeks...my how time flies.

Our crabAPPLE tree

My friend, Sandra, asked a good question in her comment on my last post: "Why does Todd want to cut off the branch that grows apples?"

I decided the answer should be preserved for posterity's sake since it's an ongoing battle at our house :o)

Here's a picture of the tree from the side. On the left you have crabapple, and on the right there's that one big branch that grows apples. I love it. Todd hates it. It really is a pain to mow under because the apple branch grows so close to the ground. As the apples get bigger, it nearly touches the grass. To me it's totally worth mowing around (especially since I'm the one WATCHING the mowing most of the time).

What would you do if it were your tree?

What we're growin' this year...

All my photography friends are going to cringe at this picture because of the shadow across Brayden's face, but I'm too lazy to take another one. Among all our flowers and vegetables, we're growin' boys. Brayden used the table saw yesterday to build this birdfeeder with his Dad.

I couldn't watch.

Thankfully he still has all his fingers, and now a shiny new red birdfeeder. Todd ordered the plexiglass from the hardware store, and they got to work. There's a hinge on the roof, that opens so you can fill it with seed, and the bottom is open so those birds can eat all they want!

Here's the boys' garden. It's only four rows but they've taken good care of it. They planted peas, beets, carrots, and lettuce.

This little plant has our first green pepper...and it's just so cute I have to go look at it every day.

Amazingly, all 25 strawberry plants survived, even though Gurney's sent them while we still had snow on the ground and the plants sat in my fridge for nearly TWO months! I'm definitely planting more strawberries next year.

Here's our backyard garden (surrounded by weeds). We planted zuchini, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, onions, beets, beans, and some squash that will never have time to grow before our first frost in the middle of August.

Brayden got a pumpkin plant at Day Camp, and we discovered the first pumpkin yesterday. He's very excited.

The petunias in my window boxes are finally starting to thrive and soon the waves will cascade over the edge...just in time for the frost.

Our pea's are going to be ready just in time for us to leave on vacation. I'm sad about this, but hopefully the neighbors will enjoy them. There are also some onions in there...

Our first tomato...

Dillon planted a sweet pea in preschool, and gave it to me for mother's day. I love the color!

We have lots of apples on our tree this year. Todd still wants to cut off the branch that grows apples, and I still won't let him.

Our lettuce border. We planted our lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, and pea's in the front yard this year. Next year we're going to plant rhubarb along the driveway.

I love when all the hard work starts paying off!

I take that back

I mentioned in my previous post that I hadn't heard, "I'm bored" yet this summer.

I still haven't heard the actual words, but today I found the boys watching Dumbo. In Spanish. And then in French.

I think that officially counts as being bored.

My 529th post

A very random post.

This is my house today:

And you know what? I don't even care. I may get around to cleaning it, or I may not. If not, it'll be there tomorrow. Or the next day. Or, I may just go on a cleaning strike until school starts again. Then maybe it'll stay clean for a few hours in a row.

Todd's on-call this week, and six out of seven teams were put in shut-down so it's been *lovely* (sarcasm). I've barely seen him. The shut-down ended yesterday with one kid being arrested, and today starts Parent Week. More crazy. I've learned not to expect any different from the ranch. I think he's only had one normal week with his actual schedule ONCE in the past year. He always says, "My schedule is as predictable as adolescent behavior" and he's right. I'm sure grateful for his hard work, but I'm looking forward to leaving on our vacation next week so I can spend some time with him!

The kids are enjoying their summer. We haven't been able to do near as much as I'd hoped as far as our schedule is concerned, but we've tried and I'm okay with that. They've kept themselves quite entertained and I still haven't heard, "I'm bored" once. I've also been quite impressed at how responsible they've been. Their garden is weed-free (unlike mine), they rarely complain when it's time for their chores, and they've barely watched TV or played any video games.

I tried couponing at Albertson's for the first time and even though I saved $66 (I spent $79), I won't be able to do it as often as I'd like because I simply "can't afford to save that much" most months. I got over 25 boxes of name-brand cereal for around $1.50 a box, which was fun, but it's all for storage...unless we eat cereal for every meal. I can't spend $80 a month on storage. Also, I have to drive for an hour to get to Albertson's so the gas is pricey. I think if I lived in an area with more stores (and closer) I could get into it more. It's frustrating to me because I love a good deal.

I started giving a percentage of my quilting money to our ward mission fund (we have 19 missionaries out right now), and since I've done that, without telling anyone about my plan, I've been getting more quilts from people right here in town...I think it's kind of cool. I was unsure how to advertise for so long, because I didn't want to get bombarded with quilts, and yet I still need a few every month for the income. I figured if I did my part to build the kingdom, Heavenly Father would bless me, and He has.

I've been walking in the mornings with a few of my friends, and none of them showed up this morning, so I attempted jogging.

I know. I can see a pig flying by my window right now.

The good news is that I didn't pee my pants and I may even try it again.

I beat my all time record in Solitaire yesterday. My score was 8447. It's kind of pathetic. Just like the fact that instead of cleaning my house right now, I'm blogging about the mess.

Speaking of messes, we had to replace our bathroom floor on Saturday, for the 3rd time in three years. The toilet was leaking and it ruined the subfloor. Todd had to replace the floorboards, and then we put down new Allure flooring. The good news is that my bathroom no longer stinks like a pee-scented candle.

I taught an enrichment class on "101 idea's for summer fun with kids" a couple weeks ago. I need to post my list here...I'll get it up soon. The class was at the park and it was a little crazy because the mom's had to keep one eye on their kids who were on the playground. Later that night (at midnight) I started thinking about everyone who was there, and I realized for the first time that almost all of the young mother's in my ward have a baby or a toddler in nursery right now. Andrea has Eddie, Sarah has Simon, Vanessa has Katie, Cathy has Oaklee, Amy has Kenzi, Misty has Madison, Julie has Sullivan, Tresa has Wyatt, Breann has Parker, Mandy has Lacy, and the list could go on. It made me cry. It was the first time I cried about not getting pregnant since my miscarriage. I was fine by the next day, because I don't have to deal with the diapers and the sleepless nights...but I'm in a postition I've never been in. I'm glad that Dillon only has preschool two days a week this winter. Then I thought of Lori, who lost her two-year old to cancer last summer, and remembered how blessed I am to have my three, and have them healthy.

Okay I think I'm going to clean my house now. If I don't, it'll be out-of-control by tomorrow...sigh.

Mad Cow disease

Last night was a long night, but not because of Caleb.

Since our bathroom upstairs is out-of-order, we decided he should sleep downstairs on the couch. And since we didn't want to leave him alone down there, Todd and I decided to sleep on the spare bed.

I can't believe that with all the people who have slept on that bed, no one has EVER told us that it makes you seasick! Every time Todd moved it was like I was riding an ocean wave. From now on when we have guests I'm going to have to serve Dramamine as an after dinner mint.

Caleb slept soundly all night, after his one puke. But, at 5:00 AM, our Little People Farm decided to start Mooing, for no reason at all. It started with a Moo every minute or so, but when Todd got up to try to stop it, it bellered like it was giving birth. Todd eventually put the thing out of its misery (I'm not sure how), but I am a bit tired today.

"Cantar Oaxaca" or Pukefest 2009 - apparently a year long event

As if we didn't have enough of the throw-ups this past winter, that horrible bug has surfaced again.

Dillon was hurling two weeks ago. Brayden blew chunks last Thursday. Todd spent all day Sunday wretching at my parents house, and Caleb just spewed a few minutes ago. I feel like a ticking time bomb...

And, it gets better. Todd's brother Michael (and family) were tossing their cookies all last week too.

And, it gets even better. Todd's brother Larry (and family) flew down from Washington in time to "share the love", and when it was time for them to fly home, they were barfing and had to stay an extra day. In a hotel. With 7 people. And one bathroom. They were lucky enough to fly home this morning, and arrived at their house just in time for two more kids to practice the technicolor yawn.

I just called all my scouts to cancel our cub meeting tomorrow, and found out that two of them were praying to the porcelain throne this past week as well.

Now I'm just hoping that my parents and my brother Tyler (and family) avoid the kohler cough.

It's JUNE for crying out loud! I thought the vomit season was from Halloween to New Year's and each family only had to get it once.

I guess I was wrong.

Oh, and did I mention that our upstairs toilet is out-of-order until Saturday, when Todd will have time to fix the floor underneath it and put in new bolts?